If you spent a million dollars for the most opulent home, complete
with the finest "security" equipment money could buy, would you feel
safer? Ask fourteen year old Elizabeth Smart, who on June fifth 2002
who was illegally kidnapped at gunpoint from her own bedroom in
their six-thousand six hundred square foot, six bedroom house in
Salt Lake City Utah, as her terrified nine year old sister, Mary
Katherine, looked on and her ignorant parents blissfully slept
unaware. The alarm system was conveniently turned off.

The battle is won in the mind first, then acted out. Be able to
predict where the illegal assault will come and have a proven
counter-attack already in place to deal with it, or, as they say in
the Army, the "seven Ps:" proper prior planning and preparation
prevents poor performance.

Although we prudently seek first to avoid, then sensibly to evade,
we must pragmatically lastly defend against unwarranted illegal
aggression. The average loss from residential burglary was eight
hundred thirty-four dollars in 1992. Only about fifteen percent of
all U. S. households have a "security" system. Why would you even
need one?

The threat will illegally strike when conditions are most favorable
for him, and least favorable for you. You're not a "random disarmed
victim." You've been carefully selected. Perhaps a more accurate
term would be "a target of convenience." You were available, and
didn't make it sufficiently difficult that the
threat was dissuaded from pursuing you.

You should never place your faith in any device, but the
comparatively small cost of an automated "security" and life-safety
system is significantly less than the cost of an illegal assault or
emergency. Sensors are available to detect opening, movement, glass
breakage, vehicles, people, noise, light and pressure. Environmental
controls are available to detect conditions of temperature, water,
humidity, gas, smoke, and fire.

U. S. M. C. Major J. Kelly McCann, CEO of Crucible Security,
suggests several layers of safety, like an onion. The first layer is
what the public sees from the street. Do you have a perimeter fence
to discourage unwanted visitors?

The second layer is from your property line to the skin of your
dwelling. Do you have a dog, or at least video monitoring and motion
detectors? It's important to maintain control over anything a threat
could utilize against you: barrels, ladders, ropes, hoses, wires. An
unlocked garage will turn into a pot of gold for intruders,
providing not only tools to gain entry, but improvised weapons like
knives, saws, hammers and screwdrivers to do you in.

The third layer is your dwelling itself. Will your windows and doors
deter unauthorized entry? How will the threat gain entry?
Statistically, entry is gained on the first floor, by the front
door, in the majority of burglaries. He'll use legitimate cues that
can be readily explained to passers-by to ascertain the status of
your property, like ringing your doorbell (a dangerous obsolete
device that gives a tremendous advantage to the threat by summoning
you to a specific place at a specific time, without revealing the
threat or his motives), knocking noisily and loudly saying "hello,"
then progressing to actually trying your doors and windows. You
should have some type of positive monitoring device to alert you
without fail to the fact that a warm body has just entered your
dwelling and each door should be equipped with self-closers. Home
invasions are popular. Don't use mail slots or pet doors. They may
not always provide a way in for bad guys, but they will always
provide a listening post. If your valuables, money and jewels, get a
safewhy don't you?

The fourth layer is your safe room. They're not a new phenomenon, in
the middle ages they were known as castle keeps. Every abode already
has one, if you think about it. What room is most defensible or
isolated? Even in a motel, you usually have a closet, or at least a
bathroom. In Israel, all construction since 1992 has required a
"protective room." The Federal Department of Homeland "Security"
recommends that you have one. This is the place to install your
alarm panelthe part that actually transmits the alarmin the
most secure part of the dwelling. Why? Most installers are merely
trying to make a big profit on the job: that means get in and out as
quick as they can. That means locating the main panel near existing
telephone and electrical power and providing ease of use for the
limited number of components that they supply at their exorbitant
"bargain" price.

If your alarm panel is conveniently located in a "public" part of
the house, like a kitchen, all the threat need do is toss a rock
through the sliding glass door and rip the panel out of the wall,
thereby precluding any warning from ever being sent. It takes extra
time, and so extra money, to do the job right. The alarm panel must
be located in the most secure part of the dwelling and additional
remote keypads to actually operate the system. The safe room is
where your valuables belong: the Rolex, cameras, jewelry, cash,
your coin or stamp collection, the heirloom silver, all critical
documentation and records. Your architect didn't include one? Make
the best of what's available: your master bedroom, either down a
long hall or upstairs can easily be "hardened" as a expedient
safe room. A solid-core type door with deadbolt that contains a
wide-angle viewfinder, not a light hollow type will slow
unauthorized entry.

How long will you have to "hole up" before the cavalry finally
arrives? Drive to your local Public Service facility. Time it.
That's the minimum, and doesn't consider Murphy's Law.

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